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04 December 2006

Lebanese lying poker

Dear readers,

I was reading an excellent article from Algérie-Monde.com about Lebanon, and I couldn't help but being sad about what this country is going through. Many French people like me feel a certain special sympathy for Lebanon, a beautiful country with one of the oldest civilizations in the world. A country whose current troubles my own land is unfortunately partially responsible for. The current Lebanese constitution is more or less the same than the one which was inherited from the French colonial past. And it is one of the Lebanese problems. Not the only one, not the worse probably, but one which Lebanon does not need.

Lebanon main problem is obviously the external influence of very "dominant" neighbours. Dominant like carnivorous (or even carrion-eater) animals only can be. But because these neighbours stir the religious and political divides of the country to help their interests, the sectarian based Constitution is increasing the problem instead of helping solving it.

On TV, yesterday, some of the people demonstrating in front of the Government building in Beirut were pretending they were representing the people of Lebanon. They were supporting Hezbollah (even some Christians...) and showing indignation when people were accusing them of playing the Syrian hand. But these people are either liars or manipulated. How can someone demonstrate for a specific (and religious) party and pretend representing the whole people? How can any demonstration, per definition a street crowd, pretend to represent the democratic will of the people. Some of the demonstrators were saying they were in agreement with an international tribunal for the killers of Hariri and Gemayel. How can they ignore that Hezbollah refuses such a tribunal? Are they naive? Are they paid? Are they threatened into this? I don't know, but it makes me sad...